


Candles

by SJ_Mermaid



Series: Zutara Week 2016 [6]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-20
Updated: 2016-08-20
Packaged: 2018-08-09 22:49:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7820272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SJ_Mermaid/pseuds/SJ_Mermaid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a fight, Zuko and Katara set up a dinner date. Their attempted make-up goes horribly wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Candles

In the small, dimly-lit apartment, Katara sat down two plates on the dining table. She stared at the timer on the oven, and began straightening the plates back and forth. Her knees were dancing with nervous energy, so she jumped up and walked around the table, checking the alignment of the two tall white candles sitting in the middle of the table. She thought about lighting them, but worried about wax dripping onto the table. Turning around,  Katara began rummaging in one of the kitchen drawers, looking for something she could use to catch the wax. She jumped when she heard the beep of the oven timer, normally quite quiet but in the empty apartment the sound was amplified. She grabbed the oven mitts from the counter, and pulled out the baked dish from the oven. She had made Zuko's favourite dish, it wasn't a very simple recipe so it was reserved for very special occasions. She set down the ceramic cookware on the counter adjacent to the stove.  She had started fiddling with the placement of the leaves in the salad, when she decided to pour herself a glass of wine. Hoping it would calm her nerves, she pulled a red from the cabinet above the fridge. Holding the glass in her hand, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.   
   
When the soft knock on her apartment door came, she jumped. For a moment, she was frozen in her spot, she even contemplated hiding and pretending she wasn't home but only for a moment, before pushing the thought aside. The knock came again, and Katara walked quickly to the door, taking a deep breath before pulling it open.    
   
Zuko stood in the doorway, with his normal shy grin plastered on his face. Katara noticed immediately that he had dressed up for the occasion. Foregoing his normal ensemble of a black shirt paired with black shorts. Instead tonite he had worn a black button up, and dark blue-black jeans. Though it was only a baby step in the way of fashion, Katara appreciated it.   
   
"Hey," breathed Katara.  
   
"Hey," he replied, they each stood there for a moment when Zuko abruptly added,  "I was going to wear my red bowtie as well, but it felt like too much"   
   
"You look great"  
   
"Thanks" he replied simply. Normally their conversations flowed much better but tonite's just felt awkward, almost as if they were on their first date, rather than one of many.   
   
"Shall we sit?" asked Katara "I made your favourite"   
   
"Did you?  That's nice"  
   
They stood in the doorway for a moment, before Zuko entered the apartment. They two made their way to the table and the space between them was larger than usual, almost as if a buffer had been placed between them.  
   
"Wine?" She asked, "It's a red from the Fire Nation"  
   
"Oh, uh, yeah sure" He held up the empty glass that sat on the table and she filled it with the wine from the bottle. Katara brought the dish to the table and served it, and the salad. They sat across from each other in silence, moving their food around with their forks.   
   
"So, how's work?" she finally asked.  
   
"Oh, yeah. It's good. It's a tea shop so not a lot of change. Pretty much, business as usual."   
   
"That's nice."  
   
"Yeah"   
   
They were back to another long stretch of silence when Zuko proffered, "The candles are a nice addition"   
   
"Oh Thanks, they were on sale. I thought they might be nice…" she began to trail off, not quite sure how to end her sentence. In the end it didn't matter because Zuko cut her off.  
   
"Katara, look. This is weird, right? I'm not sure about you, but this is totally uncomfortable for me."  
   
"Yeah, this is weird. We aren't usually this stiff.”  
   
"I know what you mean. I thought we had moved on but I guess…" he said trailing off  
   
"Yeah" she said nodding, "We both said a lot of things the other night."   
   
"I didn't mean any of them"  
   
"I didn’t either, but at the time…"  
   
"Yeah you were pretty angry with me" he said solemnly.  
   
"But maybe you were right, maybe we should just let this whole thing" she said motioning to the two of them, "Go?"  
   
"If that's what you want."  
   
"Only if that's what you want, that's what you seemed to want the other night"  
   
 "No, Katara, That's not what I want."  
   
"It isn't?"  
   
"No way, I want to be with you. I want us to be together. I just want to be us again. Because right now, we aren't us we are just two people on this terribly awkward date. But if you don't want to be together anymore, then I can just go." He stood up to leave, "only if that's what you want."  
   
"Zuko-" Katara stood up, too. He waited for her to say something, and she waited for her mouth to open and say what she really meant. "I- I don't…" Her lips felt as if they had been glued together and like it would take all of her strength to get them open.  Her tongue felt heavier than lead, so she couldn't get it to form words.   
   
"It's okay, Katara" he kissed her on her forehead, "I'll just go then"   
   
She watched him as he walked the few steps to the door, she saw him hesitate before putting his hand on the handle, she thought to her self that now was her chance. Do it, do it, say something! Her brain was screaming at her. But her mouth was clamped shut, and he reached for the handle, pulled open the door and in that moment he was gone.   
   
When the door clicked shut, Katara fell back into her chair. She felt like she should curl up into a ball and cry her heart out. But she stayed put in that chair. Her limbs frozen, she surveyed the damage. The half eaten plates and the baked dish with two large scoops missing. She should wrap it and put it in the fridge, she should wash the plates and clear up the evidence be rid of it all. She was good at that, cleaning away the grim and the unwanted mess. When her mother had died, it had left her family in a big heaping mess. Katara was there to clean it up. Do the dishes and the laundry and keep their house orderly. Make sure everyone was up for work and school. Keeping things just so, was her specialty. Looking at the mess in her kitchen now, the dirty dishes and the open bottle of wine, she didn't want to clean it up. She didn't want to wipe away this mess Zuko had made of her life.   
   
She drank her glass of wine and watched the candle wax melt slowly.  The candles were filled with liquidated wax and one of them had even been snuffed out already. She watched as the wax from the other began to brim over, some drops even spilling and rolling over the edge. She had forgotten to place wax-catchers under them and the wax fell onto the table. Drop after drop. When the other candle was also snuffed out, Katara found herself, shakily, returning to her feet. She grabbed the two plate from the table and walked over the counter. She was about to begin cleaning up, when suddenly she grabbed her coat off the mantle, grabbed her keys and ran outside. She left the mess in the kitchen and ran down the stairs of her apartment complex. She was going to take her car but then realizing she had already had to much to drink thought better of it.   
   
Bursting through the doors of the apartment building, she found herself outside.  She paused for a moment, looking left and right. She took a step back, edging back to the safety of her apartment, before deciding against it. She took off, she ran and ran. Even when it started pouring down rain. She took refuge in a bus stop for a minute, hoping it would end. Screw it, she thought and ran the last two blocks.   
   
She stopped in front of an old tea shop. The sign outside read, The Jasmine Dragon. On the door was a list of the hours and a little Open/Closed sign. It read closed from the outside. Katara held her hands up the window and looked for movement inside. It was too dark to make anything out. The cold rain was beating down on her, and had completely soaked through her flimsy coat. She ran around outside the back stairs that lead to the apartment above the shop. She banged on the door outside and waited. Iroh answered the door, he looked happy to see Katara but she could tell she had disturbed him.   
   
"Katara, Come in. You're drenched, would you like some tea?"  
   
"Iroh, I'm sorry, but it's really important that I talk to Zuko is he here?"  
   
"No he's not. Wait, didn't the two of you have a date?"  
   
"Yes, we did. But I've gone and screwed it all up!"  
   
"Katara, come inside and have some Tea."  
   
"No I've got to talk to him"  
   
"Katara, if you two fought Zuko is probably going to need some time to cool down. He's probably out there," he said gesturing to the city "hiding and working through his anger. So sit and tell me what happened and maybe I can help."  
   
Finally, Katara sat with Iroh and over a cup of tea, she told him everything. She explained their fight, and the meek attempt to make up over dinner. She told him how she watched Zuko walk out and how she watched the candle wax drip down. "I was just sitting there thinking about it all. Watching this candle wax thinking that it was some metaphor for our relationship and it hit me. It is! But not in the way I thought! I figured we were going to burn bright and then burn out. That what were was just going to be gone in a moments notice and that it would be better not to burn at all. But then I realized that a candle doesn't burns wax! It melts it!"  
   
"A Candle melts wax…?" asked Iroh.  
   
"Yes exactly. We aren’t going to burn! Do you see?"  
   
“No, not in the least."  
   
"I'm sorry this is so confusing. I just need to find Zuko and tell him that-"  
   
"That a Candle melts wax?" came a voice  
   
"Well, Yes… and no" she said before realizing that the comment hadn't come from Iroh, but from behind her. She spun around and saw him. He was drenched as well. "Zuko, I-".   
   
"Why are you here Katara?" he asked, he wouldn't meet her eyes. For moment she was frozen again.  
   
"Zuko, I- I'm so sorry." She said, tears finally poured down her cheeks. Taking a step toward Zuko, she reached out her arms and apologized again. "I didn't mean any of it. I love you, too. I'm sorry I didn't say it before, I shouldn't have lied and said those mean things." she was close to him now, only a breath away. "But I love you so much and I-"   
   
She didn't get the rest out, because he had closed the gap between them and pulled her into a kiss. A deep long kiss, and it didn't matter that they were both wet and messy, with mud on their shoes and jeans. It didn't matter that they had fought and that he had left or that she didn't stop him. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer, deepening the kiss.


End file.
